


As I Lay Dying

by Fucking_Loser



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the legend - Fandom
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Link/Zelda - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, basically just memory #17 in links perspective and my own imagination lol, zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:40:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28855236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fucking_Loser/pseuds/Fucking_Loser
Summary: Where had it all gone wrong?The Calamity was well underway by the time Link and Zelda arrived at Hyrule Castle and they barely managed to escape the initial chaos as the world around them fell apart. The two had almost made it to safety when a Guardian critically injures Link.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	As I Lay Dying

The Calamity was quick and brutal and happened in an instance.

Link kneeled on the ground, breathing hard, desperately trying to gather himself. They needed to move on, he knew that. 

His clothes clung to his body, drenched from the pouring rain and the blood steadily flowing from wounds all over his body. 

He needed to rest. Just a moment of rest and he could go on.

Where had it all gone wrong?

They had travelled back to Hyrule Castle as fast as they could, but it hadn't mattered. By the time they had arrived, the entire castle was already deeply penetrated with malice, hundreds of Guardians emerging from the columns and swarming the area.

Too little, too late.

They had had to flee as the world went up in flames, barely managing to escape. All around Link, people were dying, but he had to keep going while their screams and cries echoed in his ears. 

They had been running through dense forests along the river towards West-Necluda in an attempt to avoid the swarms of Guardians for days now with little rest. He'd had to split his time between fighting them, protecting Zelda and running as fast as the goddesses would allow and he was growing exhausted.

He was beginning to make mistakes, taking more and more hits as time went on. Zelda had begged him to stop, but he'd ignored her, stoically dragging her along. They couldn't afford to rest.

They hadn't been far from safety in Kakariko when they had run into a large group of guardians. He'd managed to destroy quite a few when one of the spindly mechanical legs had caught him straight in the stomach, flinging him back several feet and knocking the air out of his lungs. 

He didn't even have the chance to get back up before its eye locked on him. The beam hit him square in the chest. 

For a horrible second, he was convinced he'd been split in two, the pain prying his ribcage wide open, lacerating skin and flesh, tightly gripping his innards and wreaking havoc in its wake. From that moment on, nothing had made sense anymore.

Zelda had dragged him to his feet just in time before the second shot hit the ground in front of them, only missing its target by centimeters.

They had stumbled across the plain like that, roles reversed now, her clutching his hand tightly, dragging him along. Link followed her in a daze, mind blank, trying to process what had happened just now. 

The soil beneath their feet was slick with mud and he lost his footing, his knees hitting the ground with a painful jolt. Here, he was kneeling now, shaking with the effort of staying upright.

Where had it all gone wrong?

Zelda grabbed his shoulder: "Link, get up! Please, save yourself! I'll be fine, don't worry about me! Go!", she screamed, begged.

He couldn't do that. She very well knew he couldn't.

The horrible sound of another guardian zeroing in on them. He couldn't tell if the same one had come stalking after them or if it was one of the other dozen Guardians still roaming the area. It didn't matter.

"Link, you cannot fight anymore! Run! Please, I'm begging you! I cannot let you die like the others, there's been enough death today!"

He ignored her, painstakingly pushing himself off the ground against all common sense, staggering and swaying a couple steps to the side as he did so. 

His eyes wouldn't focus, the world around him a blur. Somehow, he managed to summon enough strength to raise the sword in the general direction of the red light in front of him. 

The machine whirred. 

Zelda screamed. 

A glaring beam of light engulfed them.

His head hit the ground hard, but the pain barely even registered in his brain, overshadowed by the singular entity of agony that used to be his chest. He stared numbly at the blades of grass swaying in the wind just centimeters from his face, unable to move.

Images of his family flashed through his mind. His father, his sister, his friends. Hyrule in shambles.

He'd failed. He'd failed. He'd failed.

The realization hurt almost as much.

"Get up!", Zelda yelled at him, dragging him into a half-sitting position. He screamed in pain.

It's over.

"You cannot die", she said, barely audible now, cradling his head in her lap.

No, he shouldn't.

"Link, I can finally feel it. I do. We can still-", she broke off, sobs wracking her frame.

"Don't you leave me like the others. You're going to be just fine. Please...", she whispered, gingerly brushing the strands of hair that stuck to his face to the side.

Every breath was a struggle. He felt as if a fully grown Goron sat on his chest.

Under the loose grip of his fingers, the sword pulsed weakly, whispering to him.

It's going to be alright, Link. Do not despair. It's going to be alright.

It was very hard to believe. 

Still, he closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain and concentrate on the familiar and ever-calm voice that had been accompanying him ever since he had pulled the sword from the stone under the watchful eyes of the great Deku Tree.

Stay awake. Do not be afraid. Do not despair. Time will heal your wounds.

A bird screamed in the distance.

Link's eyes shot open.

He couldn't breathe. He needed to get away from here.

He ran.

Not very far, though, because his foot caught on the root of a tree and sent him sprawling to the ground. He rolled onto his side and got up on all fours, panting. He felt sick.

He clutched at the fabric of his clothes clinging to his body with mud and his own blood, but each time he tried to reach for wounds that weren't there his hands came back clean.

He's dying.

No, he had died.

He's fine.

But how come he can feel the warmth of the blood running down his body? The fire burning in his chest? The icy rain hitting his face? The heavy smell of copper and burned flesh in the air?

He wondered if his father and sister had survived that day, or if they had been overrun and trampled by the guardians, their remains among those scattered all over Hyrule Field. Even if they had survived, the cruel passing of time commanded that they both were gone for decades by now. 

He thought of his father's booming laugh and his strong, tree-trunk like arms that would crush him in proud hugs on the rare occasions he managed to visit for a couple days. 

His sister's bright eyes when he showed her the little gifts he'd bring from the journeys he accompanied Zelda on. A strange fruit from the Gerudo desert. A piece of volcanic rock from Death Mountain. A bright red Rito feather. She'd always been a curious kid.

His heart contracted painfully.

Still kneeling, he doubled over, resting his forehead against the ground and folding his arms over his head, pain once again threatening to tear him apart. Over the past weeks, he had gathered fragments of his past life, but it was never enough, the aftermath always leaving him reeling with the glaring void that was everything he didn't remember.

What he had come to know with certainty, however, was that the world from the scraps of his memory was irrevocably gone. All this time, he'd been chasing after something that wasn't there.

And it was his fault.

Just as every piece had finally fallen into place, he'd become overwhelmed and lost control. The key to victory was right there and he had failed her and condemned thousands to death. 

Because he was too weak. Too reckless. Too unprepared.

The forgotten but all the same familiar feeling of the weight of the entire land quickly settled back in Link's heart, hitting him with tenfold ferocity with the knowledge that his worst fear wasn't just that, but reality.

In his old life, in moments like this, he had sometimes felt like throwing himself on the ground and beating it with his fists like a 3-year old growing tired and refusing to walk any further. Enough, he'd wanted to scream. He had never asked for all of this responsibility to be thrust upon him. He never did throw a tantrum, of course. Instead, he had marched on. Always marched on.

Link had walked into the Lost Woods determined to demand the Deku Tree take back the sword on more than one occasion, but in the end he'd always faltered as soon as he set foot on the clearing and just spent a couple hours brooding, the great old tree taking his silence and moodiness with patience.

It's going to be alright. Do not be afraid. It's going to be alright.

That voice...

Running from his responsibilities wouldn't change anything. In his heart, he knew where he needed to go.

Slowly, Link sat up, blinking wearily against the sunlight. The sun sat low in the sky now, warming his face and enveloping his surroundings in gold. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his tunic, heat creeping up his cheeks. He silently hoped Hylia had looked the other way. 

He set one foot on the ground and pushed himself upright, dusting the knees of his pants off and willing his hiccuping breath to calm.

Yes, he always marched on in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment. It would make me very happy (unlike poor Link lol) :D


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